Cheryl Holt Promise of Pleasure (epub)

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.”“I’m sure that’s true.”“I have to tell Victoria what you’re really like,” she absurdly threatened.“She already knows.”Mary spun and fled, his contemptuous laughter ringing in her ears.Chapter 2MARY dawdled in the dining room and stared out the window across the garden to where Viscount Redvers was strolling with Felicity.With him so tall and dark, and her so shapely and fair, they were a striking couple.It was difficult not to watch them.Redvers was very dashing, very gallant, and he chatted with Felicity as if she was the most unique woman in the world.His behavior was perfect, providing no hint of the depraved character lurking inside, and Felicity appeared to be charmed.Mrs.Bainbridge pranced along behind them, accompanied by Mr.Paxton Adair, who’d been introduced as Redvers’s best friend.He was handsome, too, but with golden blond hair and piercing brown eyes.He seemed of an age with Redvers, and he possessed a similar sophistication and refinement.He’d bragged about being the illegitimate son of an earl and scraping by on minimal funds—as was Redvers.Both men had exhausted their fathers’ generosity.Both had been disavowed.Both were flat broke.According to gossip, Adair made his living through gambling and vice, and he was purported to be even lazier and more wicked than Redvers.With Redvers, Adair, and Mrs.Bainbridge as her guests, Victoria had to be hosting the most scandalous trio in the kingdom.Mary understood that Victoria hoped for Felicity to marry into the aristocracy, but honestly! Were there no limits as to what was allowed?Apparently not.Victoria was sitting at the table, watching Redvers, too.Her other daughter, twenty-two-year-old Cassandra, sat with her.Mary went over to them.“I don’t like Lord Redvers,” Mary said when Victoria glanced up.“So?”“He’ll make Felicity miserable.”“Every husband makes his wife miserable,” Cassandra interjected.“It’s the way of matrimony.”Cassandra, a widow, was blond and blue-eyed, as pretty as Felicity but not nearly so plump.At age sixteen, Victoria had wed Cassandra to an elderly baron who’d turned out to be a brutal despot.Once, she’d been as haughty and sure of herself as Felicity, but time and cruel experience had smoothed over her more disagreeable tendencies.She was no longer conceited or confident.She never smiled.“I’ve heard,” Mary pressed, “that he has no conscience or scruples.”“I’ve heard the same,” Victoria divulged.“Don’t you care?”“Not particularly.”Victoria shifted on her chair, her heavy weight causing the wood to creak in protest.As a debutante, Victoria had been a beauty, but at her current age of forty-five, her looks had faded.Her hair was a dull silver, and she had frown lines circling her mouth.She loved to eat, and as a result, was very fat.Her baronet father had been strapped for cash, so Victoria’s dowry was very small.She’d ended up shackled to Mary’s prosperous father, but his money hadn’t bought her any happiness.She was selfish and moody and never satisfied.Not with her home.Not with her daughters.Not with her servants.And most especially, not with Mary, whom she’d never liked.“Why are you so concerned about Felicity?” Victoria queried.“Her marital negotiations are hardly any of your business.”“I think he’s wrong for her.”“And who would be more right?” Victoria sneered.“He’s a viscount; he’ll be an earl.Nothing can change those two vital facts.” She waved her hand, dismissing Mary.“Go away.You annoy me.”Mary peeked at Cassandra, wishing her half sister would offer a supportive comment, but Cassandra merely shrugged as if to say, what did you expect?Without another word, Mary left them.She couldn’t figure out why she was complaining about Redvers.Felicity could wed whomever she wanted.It just seemed inequitable that, while Mary constantly dreamed about marrying, Felicity would choose Redvers with barely a thought as to the consequences.Mary had the same Barnes’s blood running in her veins, had had the same wealthy father.Why couldn’t she have a suitor like Lord Redvers?Previously, she hadn’t minded Victoria’s obsession with making brilliant matches for Felicity and Cassandra.Mary had deemed it all so much nonsense, but recently, the unfairness had begun to gnaw at her.She didn’t even like Redvers, but he’d stirred a pot of restlessness that had her boiling with frustration.Why couldn’t she—just once!—be the girl everyone adored?She’d intended to go to her room and sulk, but instead, she headed for the woods and the path that led to the house where Harold lived with his mother.As she moved into the trees, she saw Harold coming toward her, which wasn’t surprising.The supper hour was fast approaching, and he had a habit of showing up at Barnes Manor as the meal was about to be served.Victoria always invited him to stay.He was fussy and bookish and pudgy—the total opposite of masculine, vigorous Lord Redvers.Normally, she ignored Harold’s plain features and persnickety routines, but with Redvers’s arrival, she had grown critical.After meeting the viscount, Harold seemed ordinary and.and.boring.There! She’d admitted it.He could be positively tedious, and it galled that she’d had to set her sights so low.“Hello, Harold,” she greeted as he neared.“Mary, I’ve advised you not to walk through the forest un-escorted.Why won’t you listen to me?”It was a recurring argument she couldn’t win.“You know I’m not allowed to use the carriage.”“Then you shouldn’t visit me.”“But I had to see you.It couldn’t wait.”“What is so urgent?”“I’m tired of keeping our betrothal a secret, and I want to have the banns called at church.”“Call the banns! Are you mad? Mother would never agree.”“Harold, you’re forty years old! Inform her that it’s going to happen—with or without her blessing.She’ll come to accept it.”“What if she doesn’t? What if the news sends her into a decline? I won’t be responsible for.for.killing my own mother!”“I’m not suggesting you kill your mother,” she snapped.“I simply want to marry you.Is that a crime?”“We’ll have plenty of time to tie the knot after the old girl passes on.”“I want to do it now.”“It’s out of the question.”His obstinacy incensed her, and contrary to how she typically acted, she refused to take no for an answer.She stepped in, so close that her skirt brushed his legs.At her bold advance, he looked as if he might faint.“What are you doing?” he inquired.“I’d like you to kiss me.You never have, and I’m asking you to.”“What?”“You heard me.Kiss me.Right here.Right now.”“You have gone mad.Mother always said you were too—”She grabbed his coat and shook him.“Stop talking about your blasted mother! If you don’t kiss me—this very second—I can’t predict what I’ll do.”She yanked him to her and pressed her lips to his, and they stood like two marble statues.It was awkward, it was horrid, it was embarrassing, and it was completely different from the torrid embrace she’d witnessed between Redvers and Mrs.Bainbridge.Disheartened and dismayed, she released his coat and moved away as he retrieved a kerchief and mopped his brow.“What’s come over you?” he sputtered [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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